SUSAN C. OPAVA, Ph.D.
Dean of Research and Graduate Programs
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 

Dr. Opava received her B.S. in Biology from the College of Mt. St. Vincent in New York, a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Michigan, and postdoctoral training in renal physiology at Dartmouth Medical School. She joined the faculty of the Department of Physiology at the University of Puerto Rico Medical School in 1974, and advanced from Assistant Professor to Professor and Chair of the Department. In these positions she taught medical, graduate and dental students, and maintained an active federally funded research program in the areas of water and electrolyte homeostasis, hormonal regulation of renal function, and hypertension. She has published numerous original research and review articles and book chapters on these topics. In 1982 she received a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.

At the University of Puerto Rico, Dr. Opava established and administered a Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program on the Medical Sciences Campus. She was the director of this program, supported by the National Institutes of Health, from 1986 to 1993, during which time grant funds to the program exceeded $10 million. The program was interdisciplinary, involving multiple departments and schools, and covered a range of research areas, including neurobiology, physiology and pharmacology, cytogenetics, molecular biology, clinical research in AIDS, medicinal chemistry and biosocial research.

Dr. Opava has served on a number of review groups and advisory committees of the NIH and NSF. From 1994-1999 she served on and chaired (1996-1999) an Initial Review Group for the National Center for Research Resources of the NIH. She has also served on committees of the American Physiological Society, and as a member of the Hispanic Research Agenda Group of the Surgeon General's National Workshop on Hispanic/Latino Health. She is listed in Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, American Men and Women in Science and Who’s Who in Medicine and Health Care. She is a member of several professional societies and is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Dr. Opava has occupied her current position as Dean of Research and Graduate Programs at Cal Poly since 1993. In addition to the regular duties of her position, she directed, from 1996 to 2005, an NIH-funded program that provided biomedical research opportunities for Cal Poly students in Peru, Mexico, Spain and the Czech Republic. She is currently the Principal Investigator on three grants totaling $5.7 million from the Office of Naval Research, the US. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, and the Economic Development Administration, to support applied research and the development of a technology park on campus. She has raised more than $14 million to date for the project. 

Apart from her university responsibilities, she has worked in the community as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for the Voices for Children Program of San Luis Obispo County, and has served on the County’s Preventive Health Grant Committee. She has been a member of the County’s Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board since1995.  She speaks, reads and writes Spanish fluently.

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Research and Graduate Programs
California Polytechnic State University
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
805-756-1508
srock@calpoly.edu
Last Updated: January 2007